May 8, 2013
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Penn State softball travels to Lincoln, Neb., to take on Illinois at 5:30 p.m. ET Thursday at the 2013 Big Ten Tournament. The winner of the contest between the 11th-seeded Nittany Lions and sixth-seeded Fighting Illini advances to face No. 3 seed Minnesota at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Ticket information for the tournament is available here.
TRACKING THE GAME
Thursday, 5:30 p.m. - GameTracker
Nebraska will also provide a free video stream of each of the first and second-round contests here.
A LOOK AT THE ILLINI
The red-hot Illini have won 11 of their last 12 with sweeps over Indiana and Michigan State after opening Big Ten season 1-11 against Wisconsin, Nebraska, Northwestern and Minnesota. Junior outfielder Alex Booker has been solid for Illinois in the batter's box, posting a .352 average with a team-best 32 runs and 20 stolen bases. Second-year utility player Jess Perkins paces the squad with 32 RBI and is one of three Illini with four or more home runs, joined by fifth-year senior infielder Jessica Davis (4) and team-leader first-year utility Remeny Perez (5). The trio of Booker, Perez and Perkins has shown skill in reaching safely as all three players have produced on-base percentages higher than .400.
Illinois relies heavily on pitchers Senior Pepper Gay and sophomore Shelese Arnold as the duo has combined to toss 296.1 of 316.2 innings this season. Arnold (9-10) leads the staff with a 2.75 ERA while Gay (13-16) has tallied three shutouts in 21 complete-game efforts while striking out 125 and limited batters to a .206 average at the dish. In Big Ten play, both pitchers own an identical 3.56 ERA.
Penn State and Illinois did not face each other in the regular season.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Should the Nittany Lions advance past Illinois, they would take on third-seeded Minnesota in the quarterfinals. A victory there would match the Blue and White against either No. 2 Nebraska, No. 7 Michigan State or No. 10 Purdue.
No. 1 Michigan, No. 2 Nebraska, No. 3 Minnesota and No. 4 Wisconsin each earned first-round byes at the tournament. First-round matchups in the top of the bracket include fifth-seeded Northwestern against No. 12 Indiana and eighth-seeded Ohio State against ninth-seeded Iowa.
The winner of the single-elimination conference tournament earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The championship game is set to be played at noon Sunday. Both semifinal clashes and the title match will be aired live on the Big Ten Network.
A HISTORY OF THE SERIES
Illinois holds the all-time series lead with Penn State, 18-11, while splitting four meetings at the Big Ten tournament. The last time the teams faced each other in the event was 2004 in Ann Arbor, Mich., as the Illini eked out a 1-0 victory. Penn State's lone win at the tournament was the first clash between the squads as the Nittany Lions claimed a 6-1 decision in the opening round.
THE BELL'S CHIME
For her outstanding play in the regular season, senior outfielder Cassidy Bell earned first-team All-Big Ten accolades while also making her way on the conference's All-Defensive team and picking up the team's Sportsmanship Award. The Bakersfield, Calif., native finished the regular season batting a program-record .454 with 41 RBI. Bell also broke single-season Penn State marks with 19 home runs, 52 runs and 41 walks while posting a 1.000 slugging percentage and .592 on-base percentage. The center fielder was quick on the basepaths as well, leading the team with 17 stolen bases and 12 doubles. Bell totaled 16 multiple-hit and 10 multi-RBI games while reaching base safely in 47 of 48 contests, including at one point extending her hitting streak to 22 games early in the season.
A season ago, Bell broke the school's single-season batting average record with a .423 mark at the plate on the way to first-team All-Big Ten and NFCA All-Great Lakes accolades.
Through May 6, Bell ranked in the Top 15 nationally in slugging percentage (1st - 1.016), on-base percentage (3rd - .596), home runs per game (8th - 0.4), batting average (12th - .4657), runs per game (15th - 1.11) and walks per game (9th - 0.87). Bell's home run mark of 19 is good for ninth in the country and falls just seven off the top mark of 26 from Megan Baltzell of Longwood.
With a home run in the first inning against Ohio State April 13, Bell broke the Penn State single-season record with her 17th of the season, passing Jennifer Tripken's mark of 16 from 2002. Bell hit her 18th of the season April 17 against Purdue to break her tie with Shannon Salsburg (1995-98) at the top of the career leaderboard, posting the 35th of her career.
Against Kent State Wednesday, Bell became just the sixth Nittany Lion to record 200 or more hits with her solo home run in the first inning. Bell is the first Penn Stater to score 50 or more times in a season after crossing home for the 50th time of 2013 April 26 at Iowa.
Noting her offensive capabilities, opposing teams have opted to intentionally walk Bell 16 times this season.
CHASING HISTORY
Multiple Nittany Lions will have opportunities to leave their names in the program career record book when the season is finished. Bell is currently second in batting average (.358), first in home runs (36) and total bases (368), second in runs (138), third in RBI (109), fourth in doubles (40), second in walks (97), fifth in hits (206) and eighth in stolen bases (41).
The 2013 season has been efficient for the senior, as Bell currently holds the top spot on the program single-season lists with a .463 batting average, 19 home runs, 52 runs scored and 130 total bases and is fourth in RBI (41).
Kailyn Johnson is fifth all-time in walks (91), sits in seventh in doubles (32) and is tied for 13th in RBI (81) while positioning herself within striking distance of hits (152), home runs (15), total bases (229).
BOMBS AWAY
As a team, Penn State is 59th in the nation in home runs per game (0.87). Seven Lions have recorded two or more this season while the team has produced 18 of its total of 41 (44%) in the last 18 contests. Bell leads the team with five over that span, followed by Johnson and Furuya with three, Hatfield, Jones and Yao with two and Habitz with one.
On the season, Bell leads with 19, followed by Jones (5), Furuya (4), Johnson (4), Habitz (3), Hatfield (2) and Yao (2) while Abeyta and Presto have one apiece.
BOOKENDS
Seniors and freshmen account for 158 of the squad's 182 RBI (87%) and 277 of 330 hits (84%) this season. Of the team's eight first-year players, four (Reina Furuya, Karlie Habitz, Macy Jones, Lexi Knief) have started 25 or more contests while Taylor Abeyta and Maegan Tupinio have played in 35 and 24 games, respectively. The senior trio of Bell, Johnson and Alyssa Renwick has started every game they have played this season while Shannon Hutchinson and Lauren Yao have been in the starting lineup in 44 and 33 games, respectively.
Defensively, Jones has thrown 166.1 of the team's 305.1 (54%) innings from the circle. She has accounted for 12 of the team's 15 wins this season while tossing 13 complete games with a team-best 94 strikeouts. Jones picked up the first save of her career April 24 against Kent State.
HITTING THEIR MARKS
Jones and Jordan Wheatley have accounted for 14 of Penn State's 15 victories in the circle this season. In those games, the two have produced a 2.24 and 2.75 ERA, respectively, while limiting batters to a .227 and .284 mark at the plate. In her 12 victories, Jones has thrown six complete games while tossing a 50-21 strikeout-walk ratio over 63.0 IP for a 2.33 ERA.
Marissa Diescher earned her first win of the season May 5 against Nebraska after shutting down the Husker offense for five innings, allowing just three hits over that span to end the contest.
At the plate in those 15 games, Penn State owns a .334 average with 48 multi-base hits, including 14 home runs.
WALK THE LINE
Penn State drew 24 walks against Northwestern to account for a fifth of the team's season total at the time of 125. Bell drew three in each game while five other players reached first on balls at least twice, including Johnson (4), Jones (3), Alyssa Sovereign (2), Renwick (2) and Yao (2).
The Lions drew another five in a 2-1 victory over Kent State, including an intentional walk for Bell in the sixth that eventually counted as the winning run.
QUITE THE SLATE!
Nine of Penn State's 2013 opponents are listed in the May 7 USA Today/NFCA poll, including top-ranked Oklahoma. Other opponents include Michigan (No. 6), Texas (No. 7), LSU (No. 10), Washington (No. 12), Texas A&M (No. 14) and Nebraska (No. 16) while Arizona and Hofstra are receiving votes. All nine of the programs are represented in the current ESPN.com/USA Softball rankings. As many as 10 opponents have been ranked at one time in each poll this season.